Buddy Thomas: A look back at the ballplayer's life of Ossie Fredette

From time to time Buddy Thomas takes a look back at the sports heroes of Greater New Bedford. Today he remembers Ossie Fredette.

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By BUDDY THOMAS

southcoasttoday.com

By BUDDY THOMAS

Posted Nov. 7, 2013 at 12:01 AM

By BUDDY THOMAS

Posted Nov. 7, 2013 at 12:01 AM

» Social News

From time to time Buddy Thomas takes a look back at the sports heroes of Greater New Bedford. Today he remembers Ossie Fredette.

Some say his heart was as big as his bat.

The pump, they said, was clearly generated by his love for family and legion of friends while the thump was felt by his opponents on the baseball diamond. That's how people saw the man they called "Ossie" as he crafted his athletic legend as one of the area's all-time baseball greats.

His given name was Osias L. Fredette, but, by the time he was able to swing a baseball bat, everyone knew him as Ossie. He grew up on Collette Street in New Bedford and quickly established himself as a top-round selection in neighborhood pick-up games. Ossie played every sport, but his favorite was baseball and when he entered high school he was already wearing the label of star.

He wasn't big. But, despite standing just 5-foot-6 and weighing less than 150 pounds, nobody swung a bigger bat than Ossie. He proved that in his freshman year at New Bedford Vocational when he hit a hard .436 and was called, by many, the best high school baseball player in the area. But, by season's end, Ossie's Field of Dreams would be dashed by a dose of harsh reality.

The year was 1935 and, although America was beginning to recover from the Great Depression which engulfed the nation six years earlier, families in Greater New Bedford continued to struggle to make ends meet. Realizing his obligation was to his own struggling family, Ossie quit school to go to work in a shoe factory. His high school athletic career ended three years prematurely but little did Ossie know that his legend as a baseball star would continue to grow — this time during a neighborhood pickup game in the Phillips School yard.

Leo Paradise, who happened to be the manager of a barnstorming semi-professional team called the New Bedford Eagles, drove his Ford Model-T into the school parking lot and delivered the invitation. "Hey, kid," he was quoted as saying, "I want you on my team." With a simple nod of the head, Ossie Fredette was on his way.

With a couple of solid seasons under his belt in both the Brooklawn Park League and American Junior Legion circuit, Ossie's star continued to rise. In March of 1938, he was invited to the spring training camp of the Boston Bees (who would become the Boston Braves in 1941) for a tryout. Ossie had worked out at the Boston National League field the previous summer after receiving an invitation from team president Bob Quinn and impressed team officials with both his bat and defensive play at shortstop. This time he was impressive enough to earn a contract for $75 a month to play for Boston's Class D team in the North Carolina League.

But a month-and-a-half into the season Ossie was told the team couldn't afford him and replaced him with an infielder who agreed to play for twenty bucks a month less.

The St. Louis Cardinals offered Ossie a contract to play for their minor league team in Albany, Georgia, but the combination of hurt feelings and reality forced Fredette to say no.

His family had never recovered from the Great Depression and with his parents and younger brother struggling to survive at home, Ossie put his baseball career back on hold and returned to the work force.

Yet the harder he worked, the more Ossie longed for the sport he loved. So, gradually, he began to play again. On weekends he played for a variety of teams, including the Sharpshooters Club, 7-11 Club and Fall River Indians of the New England League, to name a few.

In September 1942, Ossie married Ann Kucharska and two years later he joined brothers Ted and Armand in the military. Ossie served with a medical unit in the Army while Ted and Armand served in the Army and Navy, respectively.

Following his discharge, Ossie returned to his three greatest loves — his wife, family and baseball.

The New Bedford Twilight League was beginning to grow in numbers and popularity and Ossie Fredette was one of the league's key players. He was a second baseman for Club Sports Madeirense and, in 1947, was one of seven team members selected by local fans to play for the New Bedford All-Star squad that would compete in the Centennial Week Tri-State Championship Games. Ossie was the top vote-getter with 1,920.

The All-Stars defeated the Fall River Indians of the New England League 2-1 in a best-of-three series and won the championship by knocking off Seymour, Conn., in the title game — Fredette accounting for the margin of the victory with a two-run homer.

Ossie never did make it to the big leagues, although one of his biggest thrills came against a big leaguer when he knocked in the winning run with a bases-loaded hit off Red Sox pitcher Maury McDermott during an All-Star game in Fall River.

When the New England League folded, Ossie was batting .363 and, in that memorable year of 1937, he hit an eye-popping .521. Overall, his career average was guesstimated to be somewhere between .350 and .360.

When he finally stopped playing, Ossie turned to teaching and became a legendary manager at various levels in the city of New Bedford. One of those levels included the Greater New Bedford Pony League where, over a number years, he managed Exchange Club to a series of successful seasons and helped teach the game of baseball and life to a number of young athletes ... including me.